Courtney Plays in Upward Basketball League

After missing last year due to her hospital stay, Courtney once again played basketball in the Upward league at Tulip Grove Baptist Church.





I was an assistant coach again this year. We didn't have a lot of heighth and thought it was going to be a rough year after our first practice. We had the lowest combined scores on our evaluations before the season began, but the girls learned fast and won most of their games. They loved coming up with new names for our plays, like Pizza (for our pick play) and Dr. Pepper (for our double pick play). By the end of the year, Courtney was even running point and calling her play. She didn't score much, but had a great time. The crowd went wild one day when she went around her pick and pulled up and hit a jumper along the baseline (proud Dad). We made a point of letting all the girls play point guard sometime during the year and everyone scored.

Kelsey goes to Presidential Inauguration

January 2009 - Christy & Phillip have a new house and we help move them in and visit for the weekend.

Kelsey is selected to participate in the 2009 Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference in Washington, DC. She attended the Inauguration, a Youth Gala afterwards, and heard many speakers at her conference including Desmond Tutu, Gen. Colin Powell, Erik Weihenmayer (blind man that climbed Mt. Everest), and former Vice-President Al Gore (very boring and least favorite speaker). She only knew one person before going (she met her a short time before going - Sr. at Goodpasture whose mom played tennis with Jennifer). She was supposed to room with her new friend, but there were problems once they got there and they were not even in the same hotel. After some brief excitement about how to get their dresses to the right place and finding the right buses, she made many new friends from other states and had a great time.

She was amazed at the security presence and the number of port-a-potties that were all over DC. LOL I can't imagine why they needed all those - just look at how many people there are there. Regardless of political affiliations, this was a once in a lifetime event that she will never forget.